Russian military resumes permanent Arctic presence

The Russian Navy’s long-distance cruise in the Subarctic along the Northern Sea Route has become a flagship mission in the region abandoned by the military after the fall of the USSR. Now the once deactivated infrastructure will resume operation.

On Saturday, Russia’s Defense Ministry officially announced
return of Russia’s military to the Subarctic region. The
statement was made to mark the arrival of a task group of 10
warships and support vessels to the western coast of Kotelny
Island in the Novosibirsk (New Siberian Islands) Archipelago.

The task group is headed by Russia’s most powerful battleship and
the flagship of the Northern Fleet, cruiser Peter the Great
(Pyotr Veliky). The group is accompanied by four nuclear
icebreakers facilitating the passage through areas with
particularly thick ice.

The task group left the port of Severomorsk and has already
covered 2,000 nautical miles, crossing the Barents, Kara and
Laptev seas.

“We have come, or rather permanently returned, to where we
belong, because it is originally Russian land,” said Army
General Arkady Bakhin, Russia’s First Defense Minister.

On Saturday Commander Chirkov told reporters that another group
of vessels belonging to the hydrographic service of the Northern
Fleet has reached the northernmost coast of the Rudolf Island in
the Frantz Josef Land Archipelago and landed there. Later, this
group of ships is also expected to call on the Novaya Zemlya
Archipelago.

“The Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation will fully
implement the task of permanent military presence in the Arctic
to secure the legal access of the country to resources and spaces
of this region. This will be a constant presence,” Chirkov
said.

For Russia, this is only the beginning of improvement of the
entire route of the Northern Sea Route and the adjacent Arctic
zone, Bakhin said. Even though the task is immense, Russia has
the equipment and trained personnel to attain its goals in the
Arctic, he said.

Bakhin said that Temp military airfield on Kotelny Island that
was inactive for over 20 years will become operable in October,
as An-72 and An-74 cargo planes will land there, bringing
instruments and supplies for the reactivated Air Force base. In
the near future the airstrip will be modified to be able to
receive heavy cargo planes such as Il-76 and An-22 Antey military
jumbos. This will speed up reestablishing Russia’s military
presence in the Arctic region, as the air connection will be
regular, all-weather and all year around.

The Temp military airfield will become the Russian Air Force’s
main logistical hub in the region and will be thoroughly
modernized, Bakhin said. In the first place this means using
special material for the airstrip that will have to withstand
most severe conditions and extremely low temperatures of the
polar waters.

“We must reestablish Arctic aviation and infrastructure, both
on the mainland and the islands,” Bakhin said.

In 2012, the Peter the Great cruiser, with a group of Russia’s
Northern Fleet battleships, visited these waters and performed
its first beach landing on Kotelny Island.